Team Vrudhhi declared as winner of inaugural incubator competition by MSU Baroda

The Vision 2020 Incubator program, launched by the MSU Alumni Network in conjunction with the Office of Alumni Affairs and Donor Relations, announce Team Vrudhhi as the winner of the 2020-2021 inaugural Incubator competition.

Team Vrudhhi is declared as Vision 2020 Winner and Entrepreneur of the Year, and Graduate of the Incubator Class of 2021. Skydive declared second winner in Vision 2020 Dream Big award and Graduate of the Incubator Class of 2021. Farmhouse won Vision 2020 Environmental award and Graduate of the Incubator Class of 2021 and Help & Win wins the Vision 2020 Social Impact award and Graduate of the Incubator Class of 2021. Pureyarns won Vision 2020 Sustainability award and Graduate of the Incubator Class of 2021.

The founders of Vrudhhi – Samkit Kothari, Kishan Parmar and Bhavik Patel, win the Rs 1 Lakh seed funding award money. Skydive came in 2nd while Farmhouse, Help & Win and Pureyarns tied for 3rd.

Each of the five teams did a stellar job in presenting their Minimum Viable Product at the Incubator orals on July 24. The Incubator Council consisting of alumni and Faculty members of Techo used a structured approach to evaluate each team based on previously defined criteria.

The goal of the Incubator was to introduce, educate and expose the Techo students to the art and science of entrepreneurship. By providing a platform for experimenting with startups under the guidance and tutelage of Techo alumni based in India and the US, the university hope and expectation that the Incubator will accelerate the entrepreneurial journey of the current Techo students.

Brief introductory write-up on each team

Farmhouse

The Farmhouse team (Shubham Upadhyay and Amit Malviya) are working on an innovative idea to grow vegetables in a pod-based system inside a home. Farmhouse hopes to disrupt and revolutionize the food supply chain while providing its customers a healthy source of home-grown nutritious vegetables, from plant-to-plate in minutes.

Help & Win

The Help & Win team (Kartavi Patel, Princy Patel and Riya Chaubey) has built a social networking app that facilitates secure person-to-person communication within a surrounding/community with the intent to match a person who needs help with someone in the surrounding/community who has the capability to provide the required help.

Pureyarns

The Pureyarns team (Hrushil Shah, Saurabh Gangwani and Vikram Kumawat) has come up with a novel approach for obtaining fibers from Banana plant and making woven textile goods such as apparel and technical textiles. Pureyarns firmly believes their product will be superior to existing competing products while tapping into a new source of raw material for fibers.

Skydive

The Skydive team (Toms Jiji Varghese, Dhruv Patel, Pruthviraj Chauhan and Pruthviraj Parmar) has designed and built a drone for commercial usage using an innovative hybrid approach. Skydive is trying to extend the range of its drone beyond that of current drones.

Vrudhhi

The Vrudhhi team (Bhavik Patel, Kishan Parmar and Samkit Kothari) is tapping into the red-hot Fintech market by building an app for young professionals. Their app focuses on providing financial planning services by connecting customers with a Certified Financial Advisor. Additionally, the app provides finger-touch enrollment to government schemes and educational content on personal finance. Vrudhhi hopes to become relevant in the Fintech industry by executing on its vision of giving every common person access to financial insights to make better financial decisions and build a secure and stable financial future.